


Deviant (A DBH fix)

by Dimitra_Stark



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Fix-It, Human Alice, Rewrite, anyway so, because you know how, character interactions, connor's pov, fix, if you don't try really hard to not think about it, nothing? makes sense in this bitch of a game, this is pretty much a complete game rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 19:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15541353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dimitra_Stark/pseuds/Dimitra_Stark
Summary: Starting from chapter: On the run, Connor and Hank are looking for Kara and Alice, treating the investigation as a child kidnapping. Connor has been very machine-like since now, real besties with Amanda. His encounter with Kara and Alice may begin to plant some doubt to his programming.





	1. 1-On the run

**Author's Note:**

> So basically I love this game and the characters but I find everything about it so badly written. I'm on my fourth year of film studies (screenwriting) and I thought, what the hell, I'll try to fix this a bit as practice. Starting from the chapter "On the run", because it's the first time two of the three protagonists meet, this is told from Connor's perspective. Some examples of things I'll try to improve: -A better representation of the android situation. -Actual build of a father/son relationship between Connor and Hank. -Try to get into Connor's thinking process and how it changes while becoming Deviant. -More interaction/meaningful connections between the three main characters. -Hopefully a better take on Jericho as a whole. -Millenial!Hank. -Try to incorporate RA9. -And more!

Connor looked at Lieutenant Anderson and analyzed his expression as he was listening to the man in front of them try to explain how he lost track of a deviant. He detected only about 45% of agitation in the Lieutenant's general posture but he still made sure to prepare a few lines of calming dialogue, as he calculated his partner was more than likely to lose his temper and compromise the interrogation. Although he had been working with him for just a couple of days, he had already witnessed him snapping at coworkers, bartenders and, well, pretty much anyone who had the misfortune of standing near him when something - or someone - got on his nerves. That something usually turned out to be Connor, he noticed, as he quickly replayed some of last week's memories in his processor. That observation seemed to him like it would almost entertain someone with the capacity for emotion and he made a note to congratulate himself for making such good progress in understanding the human thought process.

"I don't know what else to tell you, they got in, she asked me for a couple bucks, I said I'm not a charity and they got out again. I don't keep track of every hobo, or drifter or whatever comes around every night!"

"Yeah, see, that's the thing! Last night, this "something" was a fucking android that kidnapped a child, for Christ sakes! Now did you see that or do I have to start treating you as a suspect?" The lieutenant looked like his patience was running thin, but Connor calculated that his chances of snapping were still low.

The store cashier looked at both of them now slightly confused. "Kidnapping? Wha... Are you sure you need to talk to me like that? I'm fully co-operating here!"

The lieutenant opened his mouth to answer, but Connor was fast to detect his intention of being overly aggressive from the way he started raising his hand to point at the man and swiftly took a small step forward, asserting his presence, without undermining the lieutenant's authority.

"My partner is simply stating that it strikes us kind of odd how you didn't notice you were facing an android and that the child that accompanied it was actually there against her will." Connor's invariably calm and serious tone of voice seemed to somewhat help the situation, as the cashier's levels of stress dropped from 21% to 18%. He decided not to point out to his partner that he had just revealed the kidnapping that they were trying to keep silent to the public to the cashier, and instead got on board with it.

"Hey" the lieutenant said and turned to him. "Do not interrupt me, you got that?" and waved a threatening finger at him instead.

The cashier shrugged in slight frustration and pointed at Connor with both hands, addressing the lieutenant. "See, there was no way of telling she was an android! This guy right here just sounded like my microwave's heat selection program! That girl though, she had a full-on mother on the street vibe about her, android or not. I felt sorry for her."

The lieutenant turned and looked at Connor with a mocking smile on his face. Connor returned the gaze and he could deduce with 42% certainty that his partner was expecting a reaction from him, perhaps about the comparison that had just been done between him and a microwave? He should know by now that it was physically impossible for an android to feel insulted - to feel anything - so Connor didn't bother to explain.

"Not sorry enough to give her the couple bucks" the lieutenant noted.

"Well like I told her, I ain't running no charity here. Also" he continued and pointed at the glowing blue light of Connor's LED on his right temple, "she was hiding her light... thing under a wool cap. That's illegal, right?"

"I don't think a violent android kidnapper cares much about other human laws, but I'll give you that." lieutenant Anderson agreed. "If she acted human-like and all. But what about the little girl? Didn't she look scared? Was the deviant restraining her, somehow?"

"No! She walked in, holding hands with her... and then stood behind her and looked like she was cold from the rain -they were both soaked. You can check the cameras, it's all there."

Connor had already detected several security cameras all around the store, but he had waited patiently for the lieutenant to finish his questioning. He understood that humans often needed verbal confirmation of even the most indisputable evidence and he had calculated that it would be beneficial if his new partner felt comfortable in this investigation, even if that slowed them down significantly.

The cashier took them to the security monitors and asked if they needed help using them, but Connor thanked him and politely dismissed him. The lieutenant leaned on the desk to look at the screen and Connor scanned for an interface that he could connect into, but immediately discovered that the hardware was very old and operated with a mouse and keyboard instead.

The lieutenant turned to look at him to see what was the hold up. He watched Connor's momentary confusion with the analog interface and laughed. "What's the matter? Hardware a bit outdated for ya?" Connor leaned to the desk too and navigated to the right folder with ease and looked silently at the lieutenant. "Would you look at that. They teach you crappy old computer classes at android school?"

Connor analyzed the lieutenant's mood and concluded that a joke would lighten the air and allow them to better proceed with the investigation.

"From my point of view, these are my grandparents, lieutenant. A little respect, please."

Lieutenant Anderson looked at him with surprise painted all over his face. He clearly wasn't anticipating a humorous response from him and Connor wondered for a moment whether he had miscalculated and this would negatively affect their - already hard to maintain balanced - relationship.

Instead, the lieutenant chuckled and kept staring at him, obviously trying to find a better comeback. Connor's analysis indicated that he had taken too much of a risk already with his response, so he looked for the video with last night's date on and played it. He started skipping it to the end, but his LED couldn't stop flashing yellow as he was deciding whether the lieutenant was joking and if not, if he should clear this misconception. He paused the video for a moment and added "Also, androids don't go to school". Then he kept skipping while his partner started laughing silently, which was an indication that he already knew that. Connor took note.

He finally run into the deviant known as "Kara" and the child she had abducted entering the store. The footage was from the camera directly above the cashier's desk and Connor could see that it was, in fact, as the man had said and the deviant was holding hands with the child.

Connor detected a change in his partner's heartbeat and turned to look at him as he sighed.

"The kid is alright, thank fuck." he said without looking away from the screen and stroked his chin looking relieved.

Connor  immediately analyzed the child's face from the footage, as best as he could, at least, since the child was too far from the camera. Nevertheless, she showed no physical signs of wanting to get away from the deviant. On the contrary, her stance made it look like she was trying to stay as close to it as possible, like she felt safer near it. Connor's LED flashed yellow for a second as he processed this new and slightly confusing information. The android let go of the child's hand and approached the cashier. Connor focused on the deviant's face now. It had a look of distress and sadness, so perfectly printed on its high tech face that it was no wonder to Connor how it could trick humans into thinking it was actually feeling those things, rather than just emulating them. It wasn't their fault if they were designed to show empathy to things that looked so much like them.

When the android stopped talking to the cashier, it turned away, took a look at the inside of the store and then looked at the girl who was shivering behind it. It stood for a moment and then took her hand in its own and left the store.

The lieutenant paused the footage and sighed. "Well that doesn't tell us shit" he said. "But at least we saw the kid is alive and in one piece. Scared and cold maybe, but in one piece."

"She seemed more than that though." Connor said.

"What do you mean?"

Connor crossed his arms. "She showed no indication of discomfort in the presence of the deviant, as a kidnapped individual would. Her body language and facial expression seemed about 20% more relaxed while she was holding its hand."

Lieutenant Anderson looked at him, trying to understand. "You're saying the kid... what, likes her? Trusts her? Her father already said they were close, but he also said that she kicked his ass while he was watching the game and then grabbed his daughter and ran. That would be the kind of thing that makes a child distrust someone, wouldn't you think?"

Connor's LED turned yellow again as he calculated the probability of an idea that had started to form in his processor. "There is a chance that the father... altered some portion of his story."

The lieutenant stared at Connor's calculating eyes with unease. There were a couple of reasons he could think of that would make a father lie about his daughter's kidnapping and none of them were very good. "Let's call the son of a bitch in for a little more questioning".

They finished up with the cashier and walked out of the store.  Last night's rain was still at full force and they stood under the bus stop their deviant had gotten off to. "Where should we look next?" Connor asked, mostly because he wanted to give his partner the sense that he was in charge.

"There is a motel down the street" the lieutenant said. "We know they got off the bus here, but they also found new clothes and still managed to get soaked again before they came in here."

"Which means they probably wondered the area in circles, at least for a while. You think they ended up in the motel?" Connor theorized.

"Well, it looked like they had nowhere to go and they had to at least have asked about a room there. Do we know for sure that androids know how money works?"

Connor could tell the lieutenant was just being intentionally crude against androids again. "I'm sure this one does. It asked for money from the cashier and not food for the girl, so we can safely assume that  at least its primary plan was to find housing for the night for her."

"Well then" the lieutenant said. "Lead the way."

They headed to a motel at the end of the road and quickly got inside. The man behind the counter barely even took a look at them.

"Good morning" Lieutenant Anderson said. "Detroit Police, we're looking for a suspect involved in a child abduction. She might have come here looking for shelter?" Connor projected a picture of Kara and little Alice  on his hand.

"Oh shit" the owner said and got up from behind his desk. Connor looked at lieutenant Anderson and then at the man again.


	2. 2- On the run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor and Lieutenant Anderson find the location where Kara and Alice are hiding and the chase ensues.

30 minutes later, five police cars had arrived and circled the block covering all possible exits from the motel. Connor stared at the room door that the owner had told them the deviant and the child were in, as the lieutenant got into a bulletproof vest. He had to make sure the deviant wouldn't slip past them, even if the 11 police men and women that were on the scene were minding the exact same thing.

But to Connor it was more than a task. It was his only goal, the reason he was even operating at that moment. He could see his objective floating just above the motel room door in a big, strict font: CAPTURE DEVIANT. He almost felt a pull to the door, like his software was simulating the feeling of impatience as if to rush him to its completion. Cyberlife had created him to be the best version of a human-like detective and had assigned him to find the cause of deviancy. He had to accomplish his mission, there was nothing else for him.

Now that the target was so clear and so close, it took a great deal of focus for him to get his priorities straight and wait for the rest of the police squad to be ready, instead of just barging in and apprehending the deviant, like he knew he could. But he was only there to assist, so he focused on the one thing he could do and kept his attention to the door.

"Sorry, didn't they give you a vest?" a voice to his left said. Connor turned and saw a young officer offering him a bulletproof vest. The moment he turned, though, the man also saw Connor's blue LED glowing at the side of his head. "Oh" he said, looking confused.

"No need for a vest, our plastic detective here is pretty expendable". Detective Reed had just emerged from his car, having only just arrived at the scene. Connor took a look at him and concluded that there was a 12% probability that he was going to do something that would compromise his mission so he didn't spend too much processing power on him.

"No, it's true" the detective continued, noticing the young officer standing awkwardly with the vest in his hand. "I actually tried to prove this point to our lieutenant the other day, but he ended up pulling a gun at me. You probably heard." The officer looked pretty uncomfortable but it was obvious Reed was just in the mood to degrade Connor a little bit. "I say whoever's next to him, next time shooting starts, just grab him and you got yourself an android shield!"

"Reed, will you please fuck off for a second?" Lieutenant Anderson intervened. "We're about to storm a hotel room to free a child and you're thinking this is the best time to bring your charming attitude to the game?"

Detective Reed shrugged and smiled. "You know what's charming, how you keep showing up with your fucking roomba in every crime scene lately. Didn't you use to hate androids?"

"Still do, thanks for the concern" the Lieutenant replied.

"Keep defending your robot and you'll be concerned alright"

The lieutenant turned around and started walking towards the motel. Connor followed him, as the time for the raid approached. The lieutenant started giving out orders to a small team of officers who made their way to the stairs that led to the motel room. Connor started going after them when the lieutenant put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. "You're not coming, go wait in the car".

Connor processed this information and looked at his partner. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant, but I am under strict orders to ensure the capturing of this deviant."

"So am I. And since I'm also the head of this investigation, I'm ordering you to stay out"

Connor's LED spinned rapidly with a yellow glow as his objective was flashing right in front of him as it was now being threatened. His programming was clear: get in that motel room. He chose to try rationalize his partner in a calm tone, rather than make clear that one way or the other, he was going in.

"You're going to need me, Lieutenant. I know more about androids than you do."

The lieutenant was starting to get angry. "Listen, I'm tired of you talking back to me. You're a machine, you're supposed to obey humans, so shut the fuck up and do what I say."

Connor could see that it was more than likely he would not get his partner to budge."All I want is to accomplish my mission. I'm sorry if that upsets you."

"Wanna see the end of your mission? Stop busting my fucking balls." The lieutenant turned and walked to the officers waiting for him to enter the room. He got in front of them and started the operation.

Connor's system was screaming at him to move. There was no window in his programming that would allow him to stay behind. He practically had no say in the matter, as his primary objective was chosen for him and he followed the officers upstairs. The lieutenant reached the door first and stopped to look behind him. He saw Connor right behind his team but didn't react to him. He proceeded to quietly open the door and enter, letting the officers comb the small room. Connor entered and immediately scanned the room.

"Clear" one of the officers said and they all lowered their weapons.

The only sign that someone had spent the night was a stuffed animal lying on the one unmade bed. There was nobody inside.

Lieutenant Anderson sheathed his weapon and reported to his radio.

"Son of a bitch. The bathroom window is open"

"We need to set a perimeter around the block, we can't let it get away." Connor said in his usual steady tone of voice.

The lieutenant gave him a furious look while pacing nervously around the room.

"Listen here, you piece of..." but he was interrupted by an urgent voice in his radio.

"We have a visual on them, they're headed for the train station"

Connor could see his programming decide his next move for him in front of his eyes, when his new objective was shown to him in big, bold letters: DO NOT LET DEVIANT ESCAPE. He immediately turned and nearly jumped down the flight of stairs that lead to the motel garage. He heard his partner shout something at him momentarily and then to his officers but he couldn't waste any more processing power to anything other than the chase.

He run past the rest of the police force, almost bumped into detective Reed and actually considered  giving him a very justified nudge. He slid over a police car that was in his way and kept running to the direction of the train station. He was sprinting at the top of his abilities, as he was once again too close to accomplish his mission to let anything get in his way. And he always accomplished his mission.

He quickly scanned the area around him and spotted the deviant and the little girl turning in an alley. It had clearly spotted him and changed their way. Connor run towards them in full focus while calculating anything that might obstruct his way. He knew the rain would obstruct his human colleagues' vision so he sent them his location quickly. He moved with precision and reached the entrance of the alley while the deviant was helping the child climb a tall fence at the end of it. Connor kept running while she landed on the other side and waited while the deviant who had abducted her climbed after. Why wasn't she running?

Connor started calculating his chances of reaching the fence in time, when the sound of police sirens closing in distracted him. He didn't have to look behind him to know there were a couple of police officers entering the alley right at that second. Failing to run the computing of his route, Connor bumped into the fence the same moment the deviant touched the ground. He had already started preconstructing his next steps, when the deviant stopped for a moment and looked at him.

He couldn't tell exactly what it was that made him stop cold and return a confused look. He was actually confused over the soft plead in the deviant's eyes. It really seemed like it was expecting something from him, or more likely, like it was weighing what his reaction would be, whether he would consider letting it get away. Exactly 3,46 seconds later, the little girl grabbed the deviant's hand and made it turn to look behind Connor. He also turned around and saw an officer pointing a gun at the deviant.

"Don't shoot! We need it alive!" he shouted and the man obeyed and lowered his weapon, while the deviant took the opportunity to start running in the opposite direction. Connor watched as they slid down the muddy slope of the side of the road and grabbed the fence to start climbing himself, when a hand grabbed him and put him back on the ground.

"Where are you going?" lieutenant Anderson was giving him a strict look.

"I can't let them get away!" Connor said. His programming was pushing him now more than ever to the completion of his mission, while his target was crossing the roadside fence into the highway, ignoring the enormous digital safety warnings.

"They won't! We have vehicles headed to their location. Plus, they can't make it to the other side"

"It looks like they are going to try anyway" Connor said and pointed to the highway, where the deviant and the child were making attempts at crossing the road.

"Oh fuck." The lieutenant ran his hand through his hair, visibly terrified at the sight of the child being in danger of the traffic. "Jesus fuck". He reached for his radio. "Units 1-5, get to the highway right now, they are attempting to cross over".

"I can reach them, the squad cars will never be here in time" Connor tried to reason. The deviant had now taken a few steps into the highway and avoided a couple of cars, dragging the scared child behind it.

"You'll get yourself killed!" The deviant reached the end of the first half of the road and dragged the girl to the safe middle part, but not before a blood-chilling scream came from her terrified lips. The lieutenant's heart rate increased significantly and Connor could see that he really was at a loss of words.

"I can save the girl." This was Connor's last resort before he would have to let his programming decide whose orders to prioritize; the lieutenant's, or Amanda's. And he already knew which it would be.

His partner looked at him with apparent desperation on his face and took one last look at the direction of the highway, where Kara was now about to start crossing the next half of the road.

"Connor, goddammit, bring her and yourself back in one piece."

Connor didn't need to hear anything else as he preconstructed and calculated his whole route to the deviant in a split second before jumping over the iron fence.

"That's an order!" a very anxious Hank Anderson yelled at him, still behind the fence.

Connor slid down the slope and avoided the cars with relative ease using his advanced predictive software. He reached the middle part of the road when the deviant was already half way across the other side. He leapt into the traffic where the deviant stood in a halt, holding the child in front of her, not even looking back, simply trying to find the courage to skip through traffic. Connor approached it and grabbed it from behind. Around them on both sides were cars going at full speed, furiously honking at them while trying not to hit them as the rain made everything even harder.

The deviant pushed Connor back and he almost fell on a speeding truck but quickly got out of the way. The deviant turned around tried to cross the road again, but Connor leapt and grabbed its hand and the child's in each of his. He managed to separate them by distracting the deviant with a kick to the leg, making it lose its balance. He pulled the girl close to him to protect her, as he had promised his partner he would. The deviant turned around, a terrified expression on its face, as it saw the crying girl being taken away from it. It made one last attempt to hit Connor but he was too quick and avoided it. It came at him again and again, desperately aiming its fists at his face, his chest and his sides.

But of course, it didn't have Connor's abilities and software. Connor was an advanced prototype that cost Cyberlife a small fortune and the AX400 he was facing was a 750$ standard housekeeper model. Here is where a human would probably feel sorry for it, he thought.

Connor blocked all of its attacks and avoided the last one. The deviant lost its balance and rapidly took a few steps back to try and get in position to fight again. But Connor's sensors were instantly activated on the proximity of something and turned to look at a car, a few seconds away from hitting the android. He turned and saw that it had followed his glance and was now looking at the little girl desperately. It took Connor less than a split second to decide his next move. He let go of the girl's hand and before he pushed the deviant as hard as he could out of the way, he couldn't help but see the worried look on its face while it was raising its hand toward the girl. Retrieving a broken deviant would mean nothing to their investigation.

"Kara!" the girl screamed and Connor grabbed her as she run towards the deviant. Cars were still going at full speed around them and Connor had more trouble than he anticipated in calming Alice down. He looked across the road but there was no sign of the deviant. "Fuck".

The rain was now calming down as Connor brought the child that was still fighting him to the police officers gathered at the other side of the steel fence. They had cut through it while the fight was taking place, so he just walked right into the alley with the whimpering child. Lieutenant Anderson was the first to greet them, looking clearly relieved. Connor could say with about 68% certainty that there were signs of a faint smile on his partner's face. He got to his knee and tried to touch Alice in her shoulder but she wouldn't let him. He drew his hand back but remained on his knees. "It's okay, Alice, we got you back."

"I don't want to go back!" the girl cried and continued whimpering. The lieutenant didn't know what to say. He stood up and faced Connor while a young officer took Alice out of the alley and escorted her into a police car.

"You did good. The kid is safe." he said.

Right next to his partner, his new objective appeared in the usual capital letters: RE: FIND DEVIANT. Connor run the last moments of his time on the highway in his processor and analyzed them for the 6th time as his LED flashed yellow. His attention kept coming back to the desperation of both the child's and the deviant's attempts to get back to one another and opened his mouth to answer "I'm not sure". But his objective flashed again in front of his eyes and he could almost sense the red virtual walls around him closing in, pushing him to take only the steps necessary to complete it and return to the police station as soon as possible.

"I always accomplish my mission."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your opinion would mean so much to me! If you took the time to read this, comment away!

**Author's Note:**

> Pleeaaaaseee tell me your thoughts if you took the time to read this, if it's worth continuing or whatever you think can be added/changed/improved. Thank you!


End file.
